UNLOCKING DIGITAL PUBLIC GOODS FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

Five years ago, the Government of Norway and UNICEF began collaborating to promote Digital Public Goods to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. This journey led to the formation of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, a multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to facilitating the discovery, development, use, and investment in digital solutions that serve the public good.

Since its inception, the Digital Public Goods Alliance has gained endorsements from diverse stakeholders, including the UN Secretary General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation. This endorsement underscores the critical role that digital public goods play in advancing global development efforts and fostering digital cooperation across borders and sectors.

OBJECTIVES OF DIGITAL PUBLIC GOOD ALLIANCE (DPGA)

The five year objectives of the Digital Public Goods Alliance are:

  1. Digital public goods with high-potential for addressing critical development needs and urgent global challenges are discoverable, sustainably managed, and accessible for government institutions and other relevant implementing organisations.
  2. UN-institutions, multilateral development banks, and other public and private institutions that are of high relevance for implementation of digital technologies in countries have the knowledge, capacity, and incentives to effectively promote and support adoption of DPGs that address critical development needs and urgent global challenges.
  3. Government institutions have the information, motivation, and capacity to effectively implement DPGs that address critical development needs and urgent global challenges, including to plan, deploy, maintain, and evolve their digital public infrastructures.
  4. Countries have vibrant commercial ecosystems in place to create, maintain, implement, and incubate DPGs locally.

Read the full 2021-2026 strategy here.

  1. Digital Public Goods Standard
  2. Digital Public Goods
  3. Roadmap

ACCELERATING DIGITAL PUBLIC GOODS IN GHANA

The UNICEF Startup Lab is functioning as an incubator for Digital Public Goods, the UNICEF Startup Lab has played a pivotal role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. To date, it has produced four Digital Public Goods originating from Ghana, showcasing the remarkable potential and creativity of our local talent. In the world of fast-changing innovation fads and attitudes, UNICEF has long maintained that the most reliable path to innovation – and perhaps the biggest innovation itself – is the open source approach. We want to continue identifying products that are usable, scalable, and ideally open source through Digital Public Goods.

UNICEF VENTURE FUND

UNICEF STARTUP LAB

1

The UNICEF Startup Lab is providing promising startups working to address global challenges opportunities to connect and engage with partners and investors, and that the lab also puts them in a position to make the most of those opportunities. Additionally, the UNICEF Startup Lab startups are exposed to international and national investment opportunities, with a gateway to the UNICEF Venture Fund and the Digital Public Goods Alliance.

UNICEF VENTURE FUND

2

UNICEF’s Venture Fund is specifically designed to finance early stage, Open Source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Venture Fund is to identify “clusters” or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology so that UNICEF can both shape markets and learn about and guide these technologies for children.

$100 BILLION

3

The UNICEF Venture Fund invests in solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces such as blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

$100K EARLY STAGE INVESTMENT

4

The UNICEF Venture Fund makes $100K early-stage investments as well as $200k–$400K in growth stage investments in technologies for children developed by UNICEF country offices or companies in UNICEF programme countries. By providing flexible funding to early-stage innovators, the Fund enables UNICEF to quickly assess, fund, and grow open-source technology solutions that show potential to positively impact the lives of vulnerable children.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Engage with Stakeholders

Collaborate with academia, open-source communities, and startups to accelerate the development and adoption of Digital Public Goods.

Access Funding

Explore opportunities for equity-free funding through the UNICEF Venture Fund to support the creation of market-driven open-source solutions.

Contribute to Impact

Be a part of UNICEF’s mission to empower innovation for social good and contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.